


The Polygender Normalization

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Alternate Gender Norms, Community: trope_bingo, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 01:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1570415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She wakes up from her afternoon nap as Louise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Polygender Normalization

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Trope Bingo square 'au: alternate gender norms'. Assumes polygendered people as the norm. Hence the ridiculously imaginative title.
> 
> Betaed by Queerly, my go-go dancing fighter pilot.
> 
> * * *

She wakes up from her afternoon nap as Louise. It’s kind of annoying because she _just_ spent five days straight as Louis and was used to his easier clothes and not having to shave anything unless he wanted to, which is one thing she’s just – look. She’s all for getting a little funky with the lines between genders from time to time, but for Hermes’ sake, she’s supposed to be going out on a _date_ , and while she doesn’t like to think of Louise, Louis, and Lou as like multiple personalities or something, the fact is that Louise’s wardrobe is considerably less conservative than Louis’s.

Louise contemplates wearing something from Louis’s wardrobe anyway – it’s not like it’ll be weird for the person she’s meeting with, she doesn’t even know whether they’re going to turn up as male or female or whatever – but even as she’s shrugging into one of Louis’s shirts she knows it’s not going to work. Even Lou’s more casual attire is just that bit too masculine, although they don’t feel specifically masculine or feminine when they’re wearing it.

So it’s into the shower to shave her legs (five days’ growth is enough to raze smooth, not enough to trigger massive dysphoria, although the way it builds up in the bottom of the tub makes her a little twitchy), exfoliate everything, wash the light peachfuzz of her hair, and shit, she has to shave under her arms as well because she didn’t do them last time she was Louise either, but if she’s going to wear the dress she has in mind she doesn’t really want to be all hairy.

It’s a process and a half but by the time she’s wrapped in a towel, doing her makeup, and has Evanescence blaring from the bedroom stereo, she’s less grumpy about it. Some days it’s a hassle, if she wasn’t expecting to shift, but most of the time it’s fine. She can’t really imagine being, well, mono. Maybe that’s good enough for the two percent of people who are, or whatever, but waking up in the same body day after day after day... nah.

“Bring Me to Life” ends and a news report comes on. The Nounself Movement are holding a rally. Again. Barely a month goes by when they don’t. The war in Iraq is almost over. Again. Louise wonders why they call it “news” and shimmies into her favorite pink dress: low enough in the front to show a little cleavage, but not tacky.

She’s just fastening her silver hoop earrings when someone knocks on the front door. _Shit_. Did she say to her date that she was meeting here? She thought it was at the restaurant. Maybe she did say here. But it’s too early.

When she opens the front door all her fears are swept away; it’s just some little white geek guy, and even before he asks if she’s Sheldon Cooper she knows he’s just gotten the wrong apartment.

“Across the hall, hon,” she says kindly, and he looks relieved.

“Before I – this is weird, but can I use your bathroom?”

Pre-date jitters, she thinks, and lets him in.

“Through the bedroom,” she says, and goes back to hunting through her jewelry box for the bangles she _knows_ are in there that go with these earrings.

When he comes back out he’s fiddling with his hair. It’s longer than when he went in, and the chest of his hoodie is starting to curve out a little.

“Oh, ‘Dite, you’re spontaneous,” she says without thinking.

He looks at his scuffed sneakers. “Anxiety triggered,” he says shortly.

“I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine – I’m a sleep shifter, myself.”

“Uh huh.” He’s still looking down.

“Well, there’s not much to be worried about, so far as I know. I hardly ever see Sheldon. It’s usually pretty quiet over there. He’s probably just shy.”

“Oh. Really?” His hair is starting to settle down, although to be fair it was pretty long in the first place. Louise is a little envious; no matter which gender she is she just has fuzz.

“Yeah. There is one thing, though...”

“Oh, Aaluran, _what_.”

She’s never heard of Aaluran before but can infer from context. “I think he’s mono.”

“What – seriously?”

“Yeah. I mean, we sometimes cross paths at the mailboxes or on the stairs, and I’ve never seen him anything but male.”

The guy drops onto her sofa. “Wow. I – wow. I had no idea. Should you even be telling me that?”

“Aw, shit, probably not. There’s nothing wrong with being, you know, single-gendered. But I figured, if you’re dating him–”

“ _Dating_ – I’m not. No. No, no, no. I’m maybe gonna be his new roommate.”

“Aw, shit,” Louise says again, wishing she could shift into an amoeba. “I assumed–”

“Well, maybe we’ll end up really _close_ roommates,” the guy says, and laughs, and it clears the air.

“In case you do move in, I’m Louise; Louis, Lou,” Louise says.

“Leonard; Leonie.”

“I’m glad we’re both lazy about picking out shifted names.” This time they both laugh. “Well, Leonard, it was very nice to meet you, but I _do_ have a date, so I’m going to have to kick you out.”

“Have fun,” Leonard says, getting up.

“You too,” Louise says, winking, pleased to see the smile that makes him look considerably less stressed out.

She closes the door most of the way behind him, peeking out to watch the first awkward interaction between him and her neighbor, and then shuts it all the way.

At least if her date goes badly, maybe she can sidle over there later tonight and ask Sheldon how _his_ went, and see if she can get to know him a little better. Most of what she knows is based on fleeting contact and assumptions, and that’s no way to be neighborly.

But she does have her date to get to. She checks the details on the email one last time, mentally noting the name and address of the bar, and the comparatively genderless name of her date. Female? Male? Neither? She’s prepared for anything.

“Leslie Winkle,” she says aloud, and the name is filled with promise.

 

**Author's Note:**

> In case I didn't make it clear enough in the actual story, the alternate gender norm here is that the majority of people are polygendered; they might be bigendered, trigendered, or something else entirely. The minority are monogendered. Polygendered people shift between genders under given circumstances: Louise/Louis/Lou shifts in their sleep, while Leonard/Leonie shifts when they're anxious. (There may be other reasons as well, but they're not relevant to this particular story.)
> 
> This story happened because I was pondering alternatives to either omegaverse or a matriarchal society, which seem to be the dominant archetypes of this trope.


End file.
